Foale

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Foale

Dr Colin Michael (Mike) Foale Status: Active. Trained as: Astronaut. Profession: Mission Specialist. Sex: Male. Marital Status: Married. Children: Two. Birth Date: 06 January 1957. Birth City: Louth. Birth State: England. Birth Country: UK. Nationality: American. Degree: PhD. Group: 1987 NASA Group. Date Selected: 05 June 1987. Number of Flights: 5. Total Time: 178.99 days. Number of EVAs: 3. Total EVA Time: 18.77 hours.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: C. Michael Foale (Ph.D.)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born January 6, 1957, in Louth, England, but considers Cambridge, England, to be his hometown. Married to the former Rhonda R. Butler of Louisville, Kentucky. They have two children. He enjoys many outdoor activities, particularly wind surfing. Private flying, soaring, and project scuba diving have been his other major sporting interests. He also enjoys exploring theoretical physics and writing children's software on a personal computer. His parents, Colin and Mary Foale, reside in Cambridge, England. Her parents, Reed & Dorothy Butler, reside in Louisville, Kentucky.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Kings School, Canterbury, in 1975. He attended the University of Cambridge, Queens' College, receiving a bachelor of arts degree in Physics, National Sciences Tripos, with 1st class honors, in 1978. While at Queens' College, he completed his doctorate in Laboratory Astrophysics at Cambridge University in 1982.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, England, and Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association.

EXPERIENCE:

While a postgraduate at Cambridge University, Foale participated in the organization and execution of scientific scuba diving projects. With the cooperation of the Greek government, he participated as both a member of one expedition and the leader of another, surveying underwater antiquities in Greece. In the fall of 1981, he dove on the 1543 ocean galleon, "The Mary Rose," as a volunteer diver, learning excavation and survey techniques in very low visibility conditions. Pursuing a career in the U.S. Space Program, Foale moved to Houston, Texas, to work on Space Shuttle navigation problems at McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation. In June 1983, Foale joined NASA Johnson Space Center in the payload operations area of the Mission Operations Directorate. In his capacity as payload officer in the Mission Control Center, he was responsible for payload operations on Space Shuttle missions STS-51G, 51-I, 61-B and 61-C.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in June 1987, Foale completed a one-year training and evaluation program in August 1988. Before his first flight he flew the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) simulator to provide verification and testing of the Shuttle flight software, and later developed crew rescue and integrated operations for International Space Station Alpha. He has served as Deputy Chief of the Mission Development Branch in the Astronaut Office, and Head of the Astronaut Office Science Support Group. He trained at the Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia, in preparation for a long duration flight on the Russian Space Station Mir. He launched aboard Space Shuttle Atlantic on May 15, 1997. He is scheduled to return from Mir on STS-86 in September 1997.

A veteran of three space flights, Foale has logged more than 634 hours in space. He flew as a mission specialist on STS-45 (March 24 to April 2, 1992) the first of the ATLAS series of missions to address the atmosphere and its interaction with the Sun, and again as a mission specialist on STS-56, carrying ATLAS-2, and the SPARTAN retrievable satellite which made observations of the solar corona. Most recently, he served as a mission specialist on STS-63 (February 2-11, 1995), the first rendezvous with the Russian Space Station, Mir. During the flight he made a space walk (extravehicular activity) for 4 hours, 39 minutes, evaluating the effects of extremely cold conditions on his spacesuit, as well as moving the 2800-pound Spartan satellite as part of a mass handling experiment.

MAY 1997

Flight Log

STS-45 - - 1992 Mar 24 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 8.92 days. Flight details: STS-45.
Manned seven crew. Carried ATLAS-1 experimental package. Payloads: Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS)-1, Shuttle Solar Backscat-ter Ultraviolet (SSBUV)-4, Getaway Special Experiment G-229, Space Tissue Loss (STL)-1, Radiation Monitoring Equipment (RME)-lIl, Visual Function Tester (VFT)-lI, Cloud Logic To Opti-mize Use of Defense Systems (CLOUDS)-1A, Investigations Into Polymer Membrane Process-ing (IPMP), Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX)-Il, Ultraviolet Plume Instrument (UVPl).
STS-56 - - 1993 Apr 8 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 9.26 days. Flight details: STS-56.
Manned five crew. Carried Atlas-2; deployed and retrieved Spartan 201. Payloads: Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS) 2, Shuttle Solar Backscat-ter Ultraviolet (SSBUV) A, Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN) 201 (Solar Wind Generation Experi-ment), Solar Ultraviolet Experiment (SUVE), Commercial Material Dispersion Apparatus (CMIX), Physiological and Anatomical Rodent Experiment (PARE), Hand-held, Earth-oriented, Real-time, Cooperative, User-friendly, Location-targeting, and Environmental System (HER-CULES), Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) II, Space Tissue Loss (STL), Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS), Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM), Radiation Monitoring Equipment (RME) III.
STS-63 - - 1995 Feb 3 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 8.27 days. Flight details: STS-63.
Deployed ODERACS 2A-2E; deployed and retrieved Spartan 204. Discovery rendezvoused with Russia's space station, Mir, to a distance of 11 m and performed a fly-around, but did not dock with Mir. Payloads: SPACEHAB 03, Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN) 204, Cryo Systems Experiment (CSE)/GLO-2 Experi-ment Payload (CGP)/Orbital Debris Radar Calibration Spheres (ODERACS) 2, Solid Surface Combustion Experiment (SSCE), Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS), IMAX Cargo Bay Camera (ICBC)
EVA STS-63-1 - - 1995 Feb 9 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 4.65 hours.
Tested tools and techniques for extravehicular activity.
STS-84 - - 1997 May 15 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 144.57 days. Flight details: STS-84.
Atlantis blasted off on a night launch to Mir, docking with the station on May 17 at 02:33 GMT. Jerry Linenger, who had begun his stay on Mir in mid-January aboard STS-81, would return aboard STS-84. Michael Foale would be left at the station for his stint as the American crew member of Mir. The crew transfered to Mir 466 kg of water, 383 kg of U.S. science equipment, 1,251 kg of Russian equipment and supplies, and 178 kg of miscellaneous material. Returned to Earth aboard Atlantis were 406 kg of U.S. science material, 531 kg of Russian logistics material, 14 kg of ESA material and 171 kg of miscellaneous material. Atlantis undocked from Mir at 01:04 GMT on May 22. After passing up its first landing opportunity due to clouds over the landing site, the Shuttle fired its OMS engines on the deorbit burn at 12:33 GMT on May 24. Atlantis landed at 13:27 GMT at Kennedy Space Center's runway 33.
EVA Soyuz TM-26-2 - - 1997 Sep 6 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 6.00 hours.
Inspected exterior of Spektr. Moved solar arrays.
STS-103 - - 1999 Dec 20 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 7.97 days. Flight details: STS-103.
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) servicing mission SM-3A, delayed repeatedly by technical problems with the shuttle fleet after the near-disastrous previous launch. Finally launched after the last possible day to avoid Y2K computer problems; one spacewalk was cancelled so that the shuttle could return by December 28. Hubble was in a 591 km x 610 km x 28.5 deg orbit at launch. After separation of the external tank ET-101 the Orbiter was in a 56 km x 587 km x 28.5 deg transfer orbit. The OMS 2 burn at 0134 UTC raised the orbit to 313 km x 582 km. The payload bay contained:
- Bay 1-2: External airlock/ODS
- Bay 7-8: ORU Carrier (Spacelab pallet). Carried Hubble replacement spares arranged as follows: COPE protective enclosure with three RSU gyros, a new solid state recorder, and an S-band transmitter; LOPE enclosure with an HST-486 computer and voltage improvement kit; ASIPE enclosure with a spare HST-486 and spare RSU; FSIPE enclosure with a replacement FGS-2 fine guidance sensor; and NPE enclosure with New Outer Blanket Layer insulation.
- Bay 11: Flight Servicing System (FSS). Contained the BAPS (Berthing and Positioning System) used to dock with the aft end of the Hubble Space Telescope.
- Bay 8: APC carrier with foot restraint
- Bay 12: APC carrier with HST foot retstraint
Hubble was grabbed by the shuttle's robot arm at 0034 UTC on December 22. Following completion of repairs HST was released on December 25 at 2303 UTC. The deorbit burn at 2248 UTC on Dec 27 placed the orbiter in a 50 km x 616 km descent orbit. Discovery landed on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center at 0001 UTC on December 28.
EVA STS-103-2 - - 1999 Dec 23 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 8.12 hours.
Installed in the Hubble space telescope a new 486/25 mhz computer and replaced Fine Guidance Sensor FGS-2.

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Last update 3 May 2001.
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